Main menu

The greatest WordPress.com site in all the land!

361MC: – Initial idea for Little Rag Doll

With the band, Six Broken Sticks, now confirmed and the song that would be made into a music video set, the long task began of crafting an initial idea based on the themes and tone expressed in the song. After a discussion with the band we all agreed that it would be best to make the video very macabre and dark in nature as the song moves through passages of being slow and paced with mildly suggestive lyrics alluding to themes of submissiveness and control. The song is masked in an already macabre and mellow sound and so the video obviously had to match the song. With the song’s namesake of ‘rag doll’, we knew we wanted the element of control and the effect of someone controlling another person’s movements or actions like a puppet master pulling the strings.

My initial idea for the video was to have the entire music video as a narrative, with no shots of the band, and almost having it as a 3 minute short film with music. Based on research, most rock music videos I have watched contain both elements of a narrative (although sometimes the story may not be easily definable and may just be a series of seemingly disconnected shots which add to the mood) as well as shots of the band performing the song. Understandably, Six Broken Sticks were adamant that they themselves wanted to be included in the video as it would also be serving as a media device to further advertise and broadcast their band in order to gain more notice and a greater online presence. With this in mind, it became apparent that the video had to contain both elements in order to serve as a successful music video; fulfilling all of the requirements for the benefit of both my FMP and for the band’s media networks. This will therefore result in a two-day shoot; one for narrative and the other for the band segments.

The concept we had in mind for the narrative and band shots were for a girl to enter an apartment looking distraught and almost in a catatonic state, throwing things around the room as her anger builds. She brings out a voodoo doll and begins to use increasingly dangerous implements on it; such as pins, rope, knives etc The video would then keep cutting back to the band holding up the various implements during the video and then to the girl reacting to each one, looking scared that she is being controlled by this elemental force. As the song builds and crescendos into the finale, it would become apparent that the girl begins to enjoy it and revels in it; mirroring the control and submissive themes from the song in both the inanimate doll and the representation of the girl as a physical manifestation of the doll. It would also keep the video very dark and disturbing with the content and underlying themes which is the macabre feel that the band and myself want it to be.

This is obviously a very early concept and the idea is likely to change but this is just the first idea myself and the band have come up with.